On the Anniversary of Medicare Comes a Renewed Call for 'Medicare for All'

[babylonsister]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/43140/anniversary-medicare-comes-renewed-call-medicare-all

On the Anniversary of Medicare Comes a Renewed Call for 'Medicare for All'
John Nichols
August 1, 2010

snip//

Now, on the forty-fifth anniversary of the moment when Truman and Johnson celebrated a major move in the right direction, however, the trio has renewed the "Medicare for All" call.

In a letter, Sanders, Conyers and Kucinich write: "Now that a new health care bill has been signed into law, it has never been more important to have a strong movement behind Medicare for All."

At the same time they warn that: "The truth is not enough. We already know that such a health care system has repeatedly proven to control costs more effectively, cover everyone or almost everyone, and deliver care of significantly higher quality than health care systems that tolerate the presence of private health insurance companies. Now we must make it so that the truth can no longer be ignored."

Harry Truman had another way of saying it. Complaining about the conservatives in Congress who had beaten him on more than a few economic issues in the first few years of his presidency, Truman decided he was going to explain to the American people exactly what was going on when his partisan rivals tried to raised all sorts of false arguments to divide workers and farmers: "It's an old political trick: 'If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em,' he explained during the 1948 campaign he was supposed to lose. "But this time it won't work."

It worked. Truman was re-elected in what remains the definitional political upset of the past century.

The conservatives did not back off. They played the "confuse 'em" card again during the debate over health care.

But Truman promised that America would eventually "adopt a comprehensive and modern health program for the Nation."

The healthcare "reform" America got this year may take the country a few steps in the right direction. But as Sanders, Conyers and Kucinich note: "Many health care experts have expressed concern that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does not adequately contain costs for American families and businesses. If they are correct, and we believe they are, additional legislative cost-containment measures will be necessary in the future."

"When it is time for Congress to try and control health care costs again," the senator and congressmen argue, "the demand for Medicare for All must be undeniable."

To Sanders, Conyers and Kucinich, Harry Truman would undoubtedly say: "Give 'em hell!"

[Doctor_J]

1. You can "call" all you want

It ain't going to happen

[Demeter]

2. When Obamacare and RomneyCare Come Crashing Down

Medicare for All will have its destiny.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Obama made sure there wouldn't be a Medicare for all, and is now trying

to kill Medicare altogether with his Cat Food Commission.